The dos and don’ts of content marketing

It has never been more difficult to connect brands with customers. One of the best ways to break through the clutter and add value is through content marketing. Content marketing (CM) is the creation and sharing of relevant and unique content to attract consumers, promote engagement and build brands. Billions of dollars are being spent every year on content marketing. Are companies getting adequate returns? If not, what must they do to get their programs right?

These days, consumers are shutting off the traditional world of sales and marketing, and shunning much of the digital variety. For example, their PVRs enable them to skip television advertising; they often ignore magazine and newspaper advertising and; email filters and online surfing habits allows them to avoid banner ads and pop-ups. Sales reps that don’t add unique insights are being shunned.

Ron Tite, CEO of content marketing agency The Tite Group says, “Consumers are skipping advertising that interrupts or gets in the way. You know what they’re not skipping? Great content. If it’s worth watching, they’ll watch it. And they don’t care if a brand paid for it, either.”

Simply put, CM is the art (and increasingly science) of communicating regularly with your customers and prospects without overtly selling them. According to The Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 91% of B2B Marketers and 86% of B2C marketers already use CM in their marketing mix. The premise is simple: firms that provide interesting and helpful content will deliver more value and a better brand experience, thereby generating higher awareness and purchase intent as well as stimulating word of mouth advertising and community building.

Firms are flocking to CM for many reasons. For one thing, it works. Julie Fleischer, Kraft’s Director of CRM Content Strategy & Integration says, “The ROI on our content marketing work is among the highest of all our marketing efforts.” Secondly, CM is meeting the needs of today’s demanding customers. Google research finds that consumers require twice as many sources of information before making a decision today than they did just a couple of years ago. Roper Public Affairs, a research firm, found that 80 percent of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement, while 60 percent say that company content helps them make better product decisions.

Some companies are using CM in powerful ways that deliver strong financial returns. For example:

McDonald’s – Created an online Q&A site that has fielded over 10,000 questions (including all the tough ones), successfully educating consumers and delivering key corporate messages.

Open Text– Built a personalized new customer onboarding site offering a variety of assets and content to welcome new clients and provide upsell, cross-sell opportunities. Over 1,700 new contacts were identified along with 31 new opportunities worth $1.8M.

Xerox – Developed a premium magazine (in partnership with Forbes magazine) targeted at top 30 accounts, yielding $1.3B in new pipeline opportunities.

These success stories, however, are the exception and not the rule. A CMI survey of 1,400 companies found that only 36% of respondents considered their CM initiatives effective. According to Tite, “To be blunt, a lot of brands are just doing it incorrectly. A content approach isn’t a campaign or quick hit viral video. It’s something you do every day. Marketing departments aren’t typically built to support that type of commitment.”

What separates the leaders from the also-rans? The leaders really understand their client’s preferences, develop the right capabilities and track the right metrics. To be world-class, content marketers should heed these Dos and Don’ts:

Dos

Focus on the objective – CM should be about inciting readers or viewers into doing something desirable like purchasing a product or requesting a quote.

Have a systematic process – Organizations should cultivate, track and engage customers through their CM journey. To drive efficiency, marketers need to ensure they are using and measuring the right metrics like leads by content, on page conversions and share ratio by content.

Stress quality – Poorly crafted and executed content can detract from your CM program and brand image. CM benefits from an iterative approach that regularly explores customer preferences and tests out new creative executions.

Don’ts

Choose the technology first – Technology is an enabler not a strategy. Get the right structure, people, and value proposition in place before choosing any CM tools.

Under-invest – Producing quality requires the right people and resources, as well as a creative license. CM capabilities need to be nurtured for long-term success.

Ignore organizational implications – Leveraging CM requires the buy-in and collaboration of many parts of the company to unlock key knowledge.

Mitchell Osakis managing director of Quanta Consulting Inc. Quanta has delivered a variety of strategy and organizational transformation consulting and educational solutions to global Fortune 1,000 organizations. Mitchell can be reached at mosak@quantaconsulting.com